News

PHOTOS: Two-Alarm Fire on Cheese Spring Road Friday Afternoon Engulfs Garage Roof [UPDATED]

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Firefighters on Friday afternoon rushed to an eastern New Canaan residence to control a fire that fully engulfed the roof of a garage attached to a wood shingle home. No one was injured in the two-alarm Cheese Spring Road fire that came in at about 12:40 p.m., according to New Canaan Fire Department Assistant Chief Russ Kimes. “On arrival we found the garage roof was fully involved and our units began attacking it there,” Kimes told NewCanaanite.com from the scene at 610 Cheese Spring Road, a home set back at the end of a long driveway near the street’s intersection with Benedict Hill Road and the Wilton town line. “We were able to contain it and protect the rest of the structure.”

The homeowners were home at the time of the fire, and they exited quickly with their two children and dog, according to Fire Marshal Fred Baker. It appears to have started with fireplace ashes placed in trash cans outside the garage, according to Baker.

News

Letter: Vote ‘No’ on Question Three

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To Editor, New Canaanite:

As a member of the Charter Revision Commission, I voted against recommending removal of the first selectman from continuation as the chairman of the Board of Finance and the elimination of the requirement that Board of Finance members be New Canaan “taxpayers”. I recommend a ‘No’ vote on question #3:

Shall the current Charter be changed so that the First Selectman, although remaining an ex-officio member of the Board of Finance, will no longer serve as Chairman of the Board of Finance, and the Board of Finance will choose its Chairman from its regular members? If the proposed change is approved, the appointed Board of Finance will be totally unaccountable to the voters of New Canaan. The present requirement that the first selectman serve as chairman of the Board of Finance without vote except in the case of a tie, originated in the 1935 Charter of the town of New Canaan. The argument that after 80 years of fiscally responsible government there is now a need for an additional check to balance the power of the Board of Selectmen evidences a misunderstanding of the responsibilities of the town’s governing bodies.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan’s Teri Buhl, convicted of second-degree breach of peace following reinstatement of the charge by the state Supreme Court, said in a post on her website Wednesday that she’s hoping to raise “a few hundred dollars” via Paypal so that she doesn’t get beat up or raped in jail. Buhl said that on Friday she will enter the state’s female prison, the high-security York Correctional Facility in Niantic, Conn. and needs the money to “pay for phone calls and to buy things for other inmates from the jail store to ‘buy protection.’ ”

“Based on interviews with other women who have been in York prison there will be gangs based on race in jail. I get to somehow try to ‘gain favor’ with the leader of the white gang to help make sure I don’t get beat up or raped.”

***

The developer of the new Post Office now taking shape in earnest on Locust Avenue said he’s actively taking inquiries from professionals interested in renting the 3,800-square-foot second floor of the Federal-style building. Asked for details on the space, New Canaan’s Richard Carratu said it features two separate entrances, a dedicated elevator and 14 parking spaces.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan Fire Company #1 recognized members of the volunteer company as well as career staff for excellence in service to their community at the 135th Annual Dinner, held Friday night at Waveny House. Scroll through the gallery above for photos of award recipients, and other photos, in this week’s DYH gallery. ***

In opinions published this week in the Connecticut Law Journal, the state Supreme Court reinstated a second-degree breach of peace charge against Teri Buhl, a New Canaan woman who had been convicted of the misdemeanor offense (as well as a second-degree harassment charge), and later had it overturned in a state appellate court. Briefly, police arrested Buhl after determining that she had harassed a New Canaan teen—the daughter of a man she was dating at the time—in part through use of a fake Facebook account. An Appellate Court in initially overturning the breach of peace conviction “concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support her breach of the peace conviction because the state had not proven that the Facebook posts were publicly exhibited.” Yet the state Supreme Court disagreed with that assessment. Its opinion states: “We further conclude that the breach of the peace conviction must be reinstated because the trial court reasonably could have found that the state had met its burden of proving the other elements of the crime at trial, namely, that: (1) the defendant was the person who posted M’s diary entries on Facebook; and (2) the defendant intended to ‘inconvenience, [annoy] or alarm’ [the teenage girl] by posting her diary entries on Facebook.” See PDF below for the court’s full decision.

Government

Charter Revision: Panel Questions Role of First Selectman on Finance Board

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A panel charged with studying New Canaan’s governing document is weighing whether to recommend a change that could see some duties removed from the town’s highest elected official with respect to one of its major funding bodies. New Canaan is unique in that members of its Board of Finance are appointed by a group led by the first selectman, who then serves as chairman of that same finance board and, as an ex-officio member, casts tie-breaking votes (and no others), as per the Town Charter. Though no problem has emerged or is expected to develop now, with First Selectman Rob Mallozzi in place, it may pose a problem of “down the road,” Kate Hurlock, a member of the Charter Revision Commission, said at the group’s regular meeting. “It is not an issue now, it’s down the road creating checks and balances so that if there is an appointed board, that there is then a balance on the other side,” Hurlock said during the meeting, held at Town Hall. “If the first selectman is appointing the board then there is a balance on the other side in terms of setting the agenda and voting.”

Members of the commission are charged with studying the Town Charter, with an eye on recommending updates for a town-wide vote on Election Day.